According to research by Marketing Sherpa, 78 per cent of respondents stated they use email to send links they want to share among friends, family or co-workers.

 

Social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, are used by 22 per cent of respondents, while 13 per cent use offline methods - such as phone calls, text messages or conversations - to supply the link.

 

The news source noted that, while these more developed forms of communication - in particular social media - will affect email use, it is unlikely that they will put an end to it as a viable tool.

 

"Email is the original opt-in tactic, while social and mobile are newcomers," the report noted, adding that it has the benefit of working in conjunction with other methods to "increase engagement, deliver relevant content and build contact databases", all of which are useful to businesses carrying out web-based advertising.

 

Marketing Sherpa explained that, through utilising media patterns from the past 15 years, a process of "aggregation and adoption" - rather than replacement - is most likely to take place, meaning no channels will be entirely eliminated.

 

Earlier this month, figures from IPA/BDO Bellwether showed that web advertising was the only area to see investment increase during the third quarter of 2009.